42 Facts About Maurice Sendak

Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American author and illustrator of children's books.

Maurice Sendak achieved acclaim with Where the Wild Things Are, the first of a trilogy followed by In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There.

Maurice Sendak designed sets for operas, notably Mozart's The Magic Flute.

In 1987, Maurice Sendak was the subject of an American Masters documentary, "Mon Cher Papa".

Maurice Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants Sadie and Philip Maurice Sendak, a dressmaker.

Maurice Sendak said that his childhood was a "terrible situation" due to the death of members of his extended family during the Holocaust which introduced him at a young age to the concept of mortality.

Maurice Sendak began his professional career in 1947 with illustrations for a popular science book, Atomics For the Millions.

Maurice Sendak's work appears in eight books by Ruth Krauss, including A Hole is to Dig, which brought wide attention to his artwork.

Maurice Sendak illustrated the first five books in Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear series.

The Maurice Sendak Foundation cites Krauss, Nordstrom and Crockett Johnson as mentors to Sendak.

Maurice Sendak made his solo debut with Kenny's Window.

Maurice Sendak published the Nutshell Library, consisting of Alligators All Around, One Was Johnny, Pierre and Chicken Soup With Rice.

Maurice Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are, edited by Nordstrom.

Maurice Sendak didn't care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything.

Maurice Sendak illustrated The Bat Poet, a children's book by Randall Jarrell.

Maurice Sendak's sister is kidnapped by goblins and Ida must go off on a magical adventure to rescue her.

In 1993, Maurice Sendak published We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, about the AIDS crisis.

Later in the 1990s, Maurice Sendak approached playwright Tony Kushner to write a new English-language version of the Czech composer Hans Krasa's Holocaust opera Brundibar which, remarkably, had been performed by children in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Kushner wrote the text for Maurice Sendak's illustrated book of the same name, published in 2003.

In 2011, Maurice Sendak adapted his Sesame Street short Bumble Ardy into a children's book, his first in over thirty years, and ultimately his last published work before his death.

Maurice Sendak was an early member of the National Board of Advisors of the Children's Television Workshop during the development stages of the Sesame Street television series.

Maurice Sendak created two animated stories for the series: Bumble Ardy, an animated sequence with Jim Henson as the voice of Bumble Ardy, and Seven Monsters.

Maurice Sendak later adapted Seven Monsters into the book Seven Little Monsters, which itself would be adapted into an animated television series.

Maurice Sendak wrote an animated musical, Really Rosie, featuring the voice of Carole King and broadcast in 1975.

Maurice Sendak contributed the opening segment to Simple Gifts, a Christmas collection of six animated shorts shown on PBS in 1977 and later released on VHS in 1993.

Maurice Sendak adapted Where the Wild Things Are for the stage in 1979.

In 2004, Maurice Sendak worked with the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra in Boston on their project Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale.

Maurice Sendak mentioned in a September 2008 article in The New York Times that he was gay and had lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Eugene David Glynn, for 50 years before Glynn's death in May 2007.

Maurice Sendak still exists somewhere in the most graphic, plastic, physical way for me.

Maurice Sendak drew inspiration and influences from a vast number of painters, musicians, and authors.

Not realizing that this was inappropriate for children, young Maurice Sendak was frequently sent home after retelling his father's "softcore Bible tales" at school.

Maurice Sendak never did learn to draw feet, he often said.

Maurice Sendak had other influences growing up, including Walt Disney's Fantasia and Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse was created in the year Maurice Sendak was born, 1928, and Maurice Sendak described Mickey as being a source of joy and pleasure for him while growing up.

Maurice Sendak died at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut on May 8,2012, at age 83, due to complications from a stroke.

The 2012 season of Pacific Northwest Ballet's The Nutcracker, for which Maurice Sendak designed the set and costumes, was dedicated to his memory.

The major retrospective of over 130 pieces pulled from the museum's vast Maurice Sendak collection featured original artwork, rare sketches, never-before-seen working materials, and exclusive interview footage.

The Rosenbach filed an action in 2014, in state probate court in Connecticut, contending that the estate had kept many rare books that Maurice Sendak had pledged to the library in his will.

In 2018, the Maurice Sendak Foundation chose the University of Connecticut to house and steward the Collection.

Maurice Sendak received one of two inaugural Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards in 2003, recognizing his career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense".

Maurice Sendak has two elementary schools named in his honor, one in North Hollywood, California, and PS 118 in Brooklyn, New York.

Maurice Sendak received an honorary doctorate from Princeton University in 1984.